A Leap in Understanding

I've been wanting to do a blog post for a few days now, but couldn't really think of what to write. Well, it's February 29th....that only happens once every 4 years, so I thought I'd write something especially awesome and make it a memorable Leap Year posting.

While on internship, I had an Evangelism and Discipleship class that really impacted me. One of the class lectures was on worldviews and paradigms. This one teaching has completely blown me away and changed my life forever. Before going on internship, I went on three mission trips: Romania, Russia, and Zambia. During training for these trips, the leaders taught us several ways that we could evangelize to the people there. Unfortunately, most of these included some form of teaching from Romans on sin and guilt. David (my teacher) explained that this is because we (Westerners) have a guilt/righteousness paradigm. This Greek thinking is written all over the New Testament and so we have adopted it as “the only way to explain salvation”. What we don’t realize is that most of the world doesn’t have this same mindset. I can imagine the difficulty for translators when they get to the New Testament and try to translate this worldview in a way that the people they are translating for can comprehend.

It actually really frustrates me that I only just learned about this paradigm concept in college. Why isn’t this something that is taught to people going on mission trips? I can just imagine what the locals are thinking when we tell them that they are guilty of sin and need to repent. “Why are they talking about a courtroom and a judge? I haven’t done anything wrong!” are probably thoughts that go through their heads. Something that David kept having us repeat over and over again was, “Faithful to the Scripture, relevant to the culture.” We tend to take the first part and forget about the second part. Christ came and died for all people. We can’t talk to people from our own paradigm, worldview, and perspective and expect them to fall on their knees in repentance when they don’t even understand what we’re talking about!

Each culture has its own way of thinking. It’s not wrong! God created all cultures so this way of thinking was created by Him as well. What a boring world it would be if we all thought the exact same way. It would be easier to evangelize, but then who said God made this life easy? There are four different paradigms: guilt/righteousness, shame/honor, clean/unclean, and fear/power. Every people group operates within all four paradigms with varying degrees of majority. As I said before, the West operates with a guilt/righteousness paradigm. The shame/honor paradigm is found throughout the Muslim world. The Basic explanation is that Jesus took our shame upon Himself when He went to the cross. The story of the woman at the well (found in John 4) is usually used with this paradigm. When we sin, we are shamed. Jesus died in order to take away that shame from us.

The fear/power paradigm is one that is found in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and any animistic cultures (including Native Americans). People from these places have a lot more of a spiritual awareness than we do and it impacts their lives in almost every way (making them superstitious). These cultures often have witch doctors and other spiritual guides that they seek out to rid themselves of demons and spirits. Miracles and healings and any show of God's power are very impacting. But so are stories! Stories of how Jesus and His disciples healed people will touch their hearts and make them want to know more. They believe that there are spirits out to hurt them. But Jesus is more powerful than Satan! He died to have a relationship with us. The veil in the Holy of Holies was torn in two because He wanted to have a relationship with us. But the story doesn't end there....He didn't just die. He rose again. He is alive. He defeated death. And he offers us the chance to live with Him forever.

Last, but definitely not least, is the clean/unclean paradigm. This worldview is found all over the world. I have found that this is the best paradigm to work from when talking to children (no matter which country). My mom (without knowing it) used this paradigm to explain the Gospel to me at the age of six when I had done something bad. She was in the bathroom and had just showered so the mirror was all foggy. She explained to me that when I do bad things, Jesus loves me anyway and died on the cross and forgives me for my bad things that I do. My mom showed me the "dirty" mirror and said that Jesus wiped away my sins, making me clean (at that moment she took the towel and wiped away the condensation). It clicked! Just like the dirty mirror, I was dirty too. Jesus wiped away my sins and forgave me. For people with this paradigm, they feel dirty, gross, and unworthy. They may not know why. But when we do bad things, we are unclean. How can a pure, clean, holy God accept us when we are dirty? Remember in the movie One Night with the King when Esther bursts into the room, dripping wet? This is us coming before the throne of God. But because we have given our hearts to Jesus and accepted Him as ruler of our lives, we are pardoned. He wipes away the dirtiness and makes us clean.

When we speak to people using words and a worldview that they can understand, their lives can be impacted. Of course, nothing can be done without the Holy Spirit, and only He can truly change a person’s heart and mind. After having that class, my mind has been completely opened to seeing things from a different perspective. I really think that I have been forever changed by that one simple teaching.

And there it is...a teaching that made my understanding of effective evangelism leap forward. Happy Leap Day!